Crossing the Chasm or falling into the Abyss?

2006-11-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore, Second Edition

Any academic book that begins with a quote about Obi Wan Kenobi will get my attention, and this book did. Throughout the book Moore uses a wealth of metaphors and analogies to convey his message and make his arguments easily understandable. Since its first publication in 1991 it has sold over 200,000 copies. Its intention is to provide something of a guidebook to market high technology products successfully. It works on the principle that we cannot please all the people all of the time but if we know how we can please at least some of the people (defined by their adoption type) all of the time.

The structure of the book makes it easy to navigate and gives us an insight into what Moore is going to tell us. In Part 1 Moore expands on the two key concepts – the Technological Adoption Lifecycele and the Chasm within it, in Part 2 he tells us how to bridge this chasm and purposefully uses military analogies and language – D-Day, attack, invasion and battle - to convey the tactical, strategic and forceful nature he believes to be essential to the success of the crossing.

THE CONCEPTS

New high-technology products are by their nature ‘Discontinuous Innovations’ – this means that they are new products which allow the consumer to do new things. Whilst this sounds like a good idea it is actually quite difficult to sell as it is lacking reference points for consumers when wanting to understand it and the reasons to purchase.

The Technology Adoption Lifecycle shows that there are five distinctly different adoption types all with their own specific needs and motivations for purchasing products. Moore explains that it is only by appreciating and understanding these differences that it is possible for companies to create tailored marketing strategies that will motivate them to buy.

The five Adoption Types are:
1) Innovators (techies) – They love technology for its own sake. When marketing to this group a company should ‘let them into the secret’ of this new product and work with them to gain feedback to improve the product.

2) Early Adopters (Visionaries) – This group wants to use technology to give them a business advantage. These people are willing to take risks on new, relatively unproven products if they believe they are buying something that will afford them breakthrough improvements in productivity, price saving or customer service.

3) Early Majority (Pragmatists) – Early Majority want evolution not revolution will wait to see what happens rather than jumping in. These people are interested in incremental improvements and are impressed by reputation, quality and reliability and want to purchase from a market leader in which they can have confidence.

4) Late Majority (Conservatives) – These people do not want to get left behind and so will reluctantly buy into the product. They are slightly fearful of technology and are likely to have needs relating to the service elements rather than demands on the product itself.

5) Laggards (Skeptics) – Laggards do not want to participate in the high-technology market and are cynical of products that fall into this category. If used wisely though, says Moore, they can be useful in highlighting areas where products fail to meet expectations and then this can be approved upon.

Moving from one to the other of these very different groups is not smooth or continuous. Moore believes that there are fissures between each group which need to be understood when targeting the next market. The largest of these fissures is the divide between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority – this is the Chasm that is referred to in the title of the book. He sees this a the most problematic gap because it is at this stage where the product becomes mass market (or fails to, if it does not cross this divide) and where the typology that defines the Early Majority acts as a barrier to the adoption of new technology with their reluctance to reference the Early Adopters, lack of willingness to take a chance on a new product and in-built conservatism.

THE ‘ATTACK’

So how should one attempt to cross this Chasm? The strategy that Moore proposes is:

a) ‘Target the Point of Attack’ – Identify a target consumer (a ‘beachhead’) and a target need that the product will deliver upon. This will be of a sufficient size to generate a profit but niche enough for the new company to be able to dominate the segment. This is to be done by using a marketers ‘informed intuition’.

b) ‘Assemble the Invasion Force’ – To give the consumer a compelling reason to buy the product must comprise more than just the product itself. This is where the ‘Whole Product Solution’ comes in. The product must be more than the sole product itself, it must deliver on the marketing promise, deliver added value through utilising services etc and there should be growth potential. At this point the company should identify what elements it can fulfil itself and what it needs to develop through tactical partnerships

c) ‘Define the Battle’ – To win over the Early Majority the new company must take control of the marketplace and carefully define the winning criteria and make sure they deliver. To do this they must find a market alternative and a product alternative against which to position their product. The market alternative is what the target consumer is using to do the job at the moment, the product alternative is another company’s attempt to do the task but is not as specialised as the new Whole Product Solution. This gives consumers reference points against which they can understand the new product and see how it is better than the competition.

d) ‘Launch the Invasion’ – This proposes channel choices and pricing policies.

So what does the book do well? The style is accessible, entertaining and easy to read. Moore makes great use of analogies and metaphors to get his message across. It proposes a few interesting concepts and reinforces what marketers will (or should) already know in terms of positioning, segmentation and looking first to the consumer rather than the product itself. The concept of the Lifecycle Adoption Cycle and the Chasm seem intuitively correct, we can see ourselves and our acquaintances as falling into one of these categories. The adaptability of this model is also very useful – it can be extended far beyond the high-technological model. A lot of what is written can be applied to any new ‘disruptive innovation’ within many industries – from automobiles to hair care products. The chapter on the tactical creation of competition added something to my knowledge, it was interesting to see that rather than trying to initially eliminate or ignore competition there are benefits to be gained in using them to help position your own product.

On a less positive note I found that in many ways the book offered nothing new when you dug beneath the surface of the two new concepts. It presented basic marketing theories and advice which if you were a seasoned marketer could frustrate. It is not rocket science to say ‘adjust your market strategies and tactics to suit that targets psychographics.’ There was an element of contradiction and vagueness in parts eg when Moore states that to get the Early Majority to believe in your product you should try and look like the market leader but should not pretend to be leader whilst not making clear how to do one without the other (assuming this is possible). The channel and pricing chapter was not as engaging as other chapters, it fitted a little awkwardly within the main theoretical slant of the book and added little. Finally, a small but frustrating point, the terminology for the adoption types is not consistent, eg using pragmatists and early majority interchangeably when it would be clearer to use one consistently.

So, to conclude Moore is keen to say in his preface that this book is not a magic formula but reading the back cover accolades

‘Crossing the Chasm should be the Bible for high-tech companies…’, ‘Read this book or risk joining the others at the bottom of the high-technology abyss.’

it would appear that some use this as a handy ‘bible’ to guide themselves and their companies. I would imagine it is not always easy to adhere to – especially elements such as ‘informed intuition’ – taking the bible analogy further a company would have to engage in something of a leap of faith to do this and act on it. Has it then, as Regis McKenna promised, ‘changed the way [I] think about marketing. It will change the way [I] think about market relationships’?

I cannot say it has. What Moore does provide us with is another model to help us understand the marketing world better, to use one of Moore’s own analogies ‘Models are like constellations – they are not intended to change in themselves, but their value is giving perspective on a highly changing world.’

Disruptive influences: Jackanory - 'Crossing The Chasm'

Crossing the Chasm or falling into the Abyss?